SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 
85 
sea ; the Natural History Societies of Northumberland, Durham, and Dublin vied with 
each other in their ardour to promote fresh discoveries, and the knowledge of the marine 
fauna soon made great progress. 
The researches made in 1844 by Professor Loven are directly connected with those Love’s Re~ 
of Forbes. In his Report to the British Association on the bathymetrical distribution of 
submarine life on the northern shores of Scandinavia, he says : “ The region of the deep- 
sea coral is with us characterized in the south by Oculinci ramea and Terebratula, and in 
the north by Astrophyton, Cidaris, Spatangus purpureus of an immense size, all living, 
besides Gorgonise and the gigantic Alcyonium arboreum, which continues as far down as 
any fisherman’s line can be sunk. As to the point where animal life ceases, it must be 
somewhere, but with us it is unknown.” 1 Loven established the constancy of the 
laminarian zone, but in the regions he explored he found that the deep zones could no 
longer be compared with those in other areas, as they varied according to latitude, nature 
of the bottom, &c. He mentions a very interesting fact, viz., that the species found 
between Gdttenburg and Norway at a depth of 80 fathoms live on the coast of Finmark 
at a depth cf 20 fathoms only, thus showing the direct influence of temperature on the 
bathymetrical distribution of marine organisms. 
When Sir John Franklin s ill-fated Polar expedition set out in 1845, Mr. Harry Franklin’s 
Goodsir, a young zoologist of great promise, sailed on board the “ Erebus ” as assistant 
surgeon and naturalist. The expedition never returned, and only fragmentary records are 
preserved of the valuable work which Goodsir had already accomplished. “ On the 28th 
June a dredge was sunk to the enormous depth of 300 fathoms, and produced many 
highly interesting species of Mollusca, Crustacea, Asteriadse, Spatangi, and Coralline? ; 
such as Fusus, Turritella , Venus, Dentalium, &e., and also some large forms of Isopoda. 
As bearing upon the geographical distribution of species, Mr. Goodsir considers the 
occurrence of Brissus lyrifer (Forbes) and Alauna rostrata (Goodsir) as of the greatest 
interest, both of them being natives of the Scottish seas. The remarkable depth also 
appears to us to give peculiar interest to these researches, as we believe that the 
deepest dredgings ever previously obtained were those of Professor E. Forbes in the 
Levant, the deepest of which was 230 fathoms, itself far beyond any made by other 
naturalists.” 2 
In 1845 Professor W. C. Williamson described some Foraminifera, Diatoms, and Observations 
Sponge spicules from some Mediterranean muds, and, in discussing the origin °f 
limestone strata in shallow and deep waters, he suggests that the whole of the Williamson. 
calcareous organisms may be removed by carbonated waters. 
In 1846 Captain Spratt, R.N., dredged in 310 fathoms, 40 miles to the east of Malta, Spratt. 
1 Brit. Ass. Report for 1 854, Trans, of Sections, p. 50. 
8 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. i., vol. xvi. p. 164, 1845. Sir John Ross in the Arctic in 1818, and Sir J. C. Ross 
in the Antarctic, had, however, dredged in depths greater than 400 fathoms (see ante, pp. 76 and 78). 
